Mike Watt Tries to Make Some Sense of Middle Age

I'll admit that I always get a bit nervous when
interviewing someone like Mike Watt. As a huge fan of the Minutemen, the
seminal punk band that featured Watt on bass, I found myself with a list of
questions involving songs that are now more than 20 years old. Yet at the same
time I'm also enthralled with Watt's latest solo album, Hyphenated-Man, a collection of 30 songs that finds Watt returning
to the no-filler approach to songwriting that marked his early punk days. Throw
into the mix that Watt continues to play bass in the 21st-century version of
The Stooges and the line between past and present within his work is further
blurred.

And, after speaking with Watt, this may be the
point. For Watt, the creation of Hyphenated-Man
became a way for the musician to "confront myself about some things," namely
the fact that, at 53 years old, he is now solidly middle-aged. "Middle age,"
Watt relays, "is a fucked-up place," and Watt is quick to point out that he's
currently "playing some weird shit." Songs like "Confused-Parts-Man"
("Mangled-up parts together twisted/ Didn't realize most existed/ Bafflin' how
they're connected") and "Beak-Holding-Letter-Man" ("Fumblin' for footin' on
fuckin' ice skates") speak to the instability and outright angst that getting
older often brings.

Yet if Watt sees middle age as a less-than-perfect
life stage, he is also quick to point out that "it doesn't have to be this
way." In light of such an admission, Hyphenated-Man
can be heard as less a lament over lost youth and more as a call to embrace the
best parts of what Minor Threat once called the "adult crash."

"Middle age," Watt continues, "can be all about
reconciling," and this latest record seems to have given him the chance to come
to terms with pieces of his own past.

Speaking to this process, much has been made of the
fact that Watt used the guitar of former Minutemen band mate D. Boon to write
the material on Hyphenated-Man. After
Boon's tragic death in a 1985 van accident, Watt had trouble revisiting the
music that he had once made with his close friend. Asked why he decided to
return to this traumatic point in his life, Watt answers in a way that is both
humble and touching: "I suppose I was just looking for courage."

The act of allowing himself to reconnect with this
important component of his past has proved liberating to Watt. The music on Hyphenated-Man harkens back to the punk
aesthetic of the Minutemen in a way that seems far from anything resembling
mindless nostalgia. And in coming full circle, Watt suggests that punk may in
fact be the best soundtrack for middle age. When confronted with our own
mortality, many of us, like Watt himself, quickly grow to hate wasted time. In
light of such a development, the economy of punk grows even more appealing.

But Watt is not simply barreling through life with
his head down and nose to the grindstone. Instead, he is using his ability to
play music and tour to continue to evolve, as both a person and an artist. From
a van heading to a show in Baltimore and in a tone that sounds less grizzled
road veteran and more wide-eyed newcomer, Watt says, "Everybody's got something
to teach me. You're never out of school, and I'm here to learn."

Getting older never seemed so cool.

Mike Watt and
his band, the Missingmen, play Shank Hall on Saturday, April 16, at 8 p.m. with
Couch Flambeau.